It is known that if $x^2 + y^2 = z^2$ is a primitive Pythagorean triplet then $z$ is not divisible by any prime of the form $4k-1$. The following is a generalization of this classical result which shows that the source of this property is not the hypotenuse $z$, but the two orthogonal side $x$ and $y$:
Conjecture: Let $f(x,y) = a_0x^n + a_1 x^{n-1}y + a_2x^{n-2}y^2 + \cdots + a_ny^n$, $n \ge 2, a_0a_n \ne 0$. Then there are infinitely many primes of the form $8k+3$ which do not divide $f(x,y)$ for any primitive Pythagorean triplet $x^2 + y^2 = z^2$.
Questions:
- Is the conjecture known? I am looking for a proof or disproof of the conjecture.
- Or can we prove the simpler case for $x^n +y^n$?
Update 1: If has been proved for the special case $x+y$ (in the answer below) and is already known to be true for $x^2 + y^2$. Experimental data shows that $x^3 + y^3$ is not divisible by infinitely many primes of the form $8k+3$ while $x^4 + y^4$ is not divisible by infinitely many primes of the form $8k+3, 8k+5$ and $8k+7$.
Update 2: Posted in MO since the general case of the conjecture is open
Sagemath Code
r = 2
fac = prime_factors(1)
while r <= 200:
s = 1 + r%2
while(s < r):
if gcd(s,r)== 1:
b = r^2 - s^2
c = 2*r*s
# t = 5*b^3 +7*b^1*c^2 + 5*b^2*c^1 + 2*c^3
# t = b^4 - 3*b^1*c^3 - b^2*c^2 - 1*c^4
# t = b^2 - 11*b*c - c^2
t = b + c
fac = fac + prime_factors(t)
fac = list(dict.fromkeys(fac))
s = s + 2
r = r + 1
fac = sorted(fac)
fac2 = fac
fac = fac[:floor(0.5*len(fac))]
P = Primes()
prime = P[:prime_pi(max(fac))]
diff = list(set(prime) - set(fac))
diff = sorted(diff)
print diff
For a primitive Pythagorean triangle, there are integers $m,n > 0$ with $\gcd(m,n) = 1$ and $m,n$ not both odd, so that $x+y$ equals $$ m^2 + 2mn - n^2 $$ This is an indefinite binary quadratic form of discriminant $8,$ which has class number one. Thus the form is equivalent to $$ u^2 - 2 v^2, $$ and any prime $$ q \equiv 3,5 \pmod 8 $$ is not able to divide such a form without dividing both variables. The special case of prime $2$ is taken care of by the condition that $m+n$ be odd.